Ruckus mars in-camera briefing

ISLAMABAD - The in-camera joint session of Parliament that resumed Tuesday with Speaker National Assembly Dr Fehmida Mirza in the chair, was adjourned amid uproar till Wednesday. Although there has been no official word about Tuesday's in-camera proceedings, parliamentary sources told TheNation that Information Minister Sherry Rehman briefed the joint sitting on government's policy about national security and the ongoing war against terror. Informed sources who spoke on condition of anonymity quoted Sherry Rehman as saying that Pakistan was fighting its own war rather than protecting the US interests. Sources said that the Information Minister dwelt on the government's three-pronged strategy on the war against terrorism including dialogue, development and limited use of force. The Minister said that Pakistan had suffered a huge loss in the war, adding the government was holding talks only with those who laid down their arms. However, sources were of the view that the Speaker amid uproar adjourned the in-camera sitting after refusing two MPs belonging to the PML-N who sought to discuss something on point of order. Sources said that soon after the Information Minister made her presentation, all MPs stood up in respect to the national anthem that was played in the House. An informed source said that the House saw uproar with all the MPs belonging to the Opposition benches standing up in support of their party colleagues Ayaz Amir MNA and Senator Zafar Iqbal Jhagra who sought to discuss on point of order but were not allowed by the Speaker. It was also learnt that Speaker Dr Fehmida Mirza later chaired a meeting of the House Business Advisory Committee to sort out with parliamentary leaders of different parties the issues relating to questions and answers and debate on the policy statement during in-camera sitting for the next four days. In another related development, PML-N Quaid Nawaz Sharif held a consultative meeting with senior party leaders here Tuesday and vowed to extend unconditional support and cooperation to the PPP-led coalition government. Informed sources said that PML-N meeting however expressed its discontentment over the government policy statement unveiled earlier by the Information Minister ostensibly on the pretext that there was nothing new in the statement. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani has called a parliamentary meeting of the coalition partners ahead of the in-camera session Wednesday for a consensus resolution to support the government policy against war on terror. Meanwhile, the unavailability of four federal ministers assigned to satisfy the queries of lawmakers in the question/answer session of the ongoing in-camera joint sitting of Parliament on Wednesday (today) irks the Opposition. Sources told TheNation that in the parliamentary leaders' meeting with the Speaker National Assembly after Tuesday's in-camera session in which Federal Information Minister Sherry Rehman briefed the Parliament, the Parliamentary Leaders of PML-Q and PML-N raised doubts about the question/answer session that is scheduled for Wednesday (today) and said that only Sherry was not enough to answer all queries. "Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani, who was also present in the meeting, assured these Parliamentary Leaders that four Federal Ministers including Foreign, Interior, Defence and Finance would answer the questions raised by parliamentarians over security related issues on their return from China on October 17 during the debate session," the sources said. When asked the PML-Q Parliamentary Leader in the National Assembly Syed Faisal Saleh Hayat confirming the report said, "PML-Q has reservation over Wednesday's question hour session that is going to be conducted by Information Minister who surely can't answer all raised queries." "On our objection, the Prime Minister assured us that on Wednesday's question hour session, National Security Advisor Mehmood Ali Durrani would assist Sherry Rehman while four heads of crucial ministries on their return from China would give answers to the queries raised by parliamentarians during debate session," he added. Faisal said it was hard to take part in debate unless the lawmakers could get comprehensive answers to their questions and it was impossible in the absence of the heads of four key ministries. "The Prime Minister has assured Opposition that question/answer session will not conclude on Wednesday and the MPs would be allowed to ask questions during four-day debate session with respective ministers on their return from China on October 17," he stated. Sources further told this correspondent that in the house business advisory committee meeting PML-Q and PML-N proposed that the debate should be open so that the whole nation could learn about the facts regarding national security issues while JUI-F and Fata MPs opposed the idea terming it a security threat for them. "JUI-F and Fata MPs said if the debate became open, it would be tough for them to speak candidly due to fear of retaliation from extremists," the sources said.